SKETCH

Without returning to the sketch, write down as many objects that you saw in the sketch.  Take your time, but hopefully no longer than two minutes.   When you are satisfied with your list, continue the exercise below.

~*~

[ONLY continue reading after you have written down all that you recall seeing.]

Here are the items, and I might add, the ONLY items in the sketch:

In the upper left hand corner inside the window...

• A shelf supported by a bracket, with a scroll work design
• a small vase
• a wine bottle
• a flower pot with its contents draping over the right side of the pot.

In the window ;

• a cat sitting on the left side of the sill with its head tilted toward the viewers right
  
• a stemmed wine glass on a table just inside the window.
• a drapery from the top of the window frame that extends below the level of the window inside, and a drapery tie.
  

And, of course, the window consisting of...

• a frame
• hinges with
  
• shutters on each side
• held by shutter clips
  

And finally below the window on the outside...

• two wooden brackets extending outward from the window frame holding
  
• a clothesline with
• a hankie hanging from two clothes pins
• a pair of ladies hose hanging by four clothespins
• ladies panties suspended by clothespins
• behind the panties a woman's bra held by one clothes pin

Aside from the shadow of the brackets and the shadow of the items on the line there is nothing else in the sketch. 

With that said let me begin the questions.

1. Did anyone see a nude woman being viewed from the rear?   I am going to guess that everyone responded, yes, and sadly you would be wrong.
   
2. Were you offended by seeing a nude woman in an example used to teach one or more aspects of "A Course in Miracles"?   Please be honest with your answer.  It is important to the overall lesson.
   

With the same emphasis that the Course makes with the idea, "There is no world", and "There is no sin", THERE IS NO WOMAN IN THE SKETCH.   What you were seeing as a woman is merely the empty space between the other features that make up the actual contents of the sketch.


If you want to see it again, just CLICK here to RETURN once more to the SKETCH then click the link provided or use your browser BACK button to
return and continue the exercise at this point.

~*~

What you have just participated in is a classic example of misperception...seeing and believing that something that is not there actually exists.

What you perceived as the woman's face and hair is the vase and the overhanging plant
What you perceived as the woman's right side is the edge of the drape.
What you perceived as the woman's buttocks is the stemmed wine glass on the table.
What you perceived as the woman's left side is the right side of the cat, and the woman's left breast, the gap between the cat's ears.
What you perceived as the woman's left arm is merely the empty space between the shelf bracket and the cat.


THERE IS NO WOMAN.


So here is the summary and correlation of the list of issues in the beginning.

Our eyes present to the mind what the eyes think they see.   The mind processes the input based on what it interprets from past observations.   Our past experiences literally caused the mind to process empty space into the image of a nude woman and projected it as reality.

Don't be alarmed or surprised by this at all.  It is the ego's plan for our constant distraction from Reality by the unreal. 

We all got fooled.   Get over it.

As the Course says, nothing is a sin to be punished, but a lesson from which we can learn and implement correction.

But there is more.   If you were offended by seeing a female nude in this exercise, there is now a compound error in need of a second area for correction.

First, you made a jump to judgement over something that was not there, further compounded by deeming (judging) a nude woman in an ACIM exercise as inappropriate.

Judgment is what we are learning to release, and replace with forgiveness.   In either application, here is a wonderful, simple, and glaring opportunity to release judgment and forgive yourself in the process.   This is a classic example of the need of forgiving a brother for what he did not do.   I did not put a nude woman in the sketch...but your erroneous perception did.

The untrained mind will invariably misinterpret EVERYTHING. The Course clearly says, "This is a course in Mind training."

When we begin to realize that absolutely nothing that we see is either there, or real, then the Universe as we now know it, will also disappear into nothingness just like the illusion of the nude woman. All that will be left to see is Heaven, a forgiven World, and our true Reality.

* Once led to engage in full time ministry as a Course teacher, Bob opted to become and independent non-denominational minister so that he could teach a pure version of ACIM without the need to satisfy any particular denominational tenets.  Bob, originally from NY, now reside s in Southern California where he teaches in churches and home settings.  More on Bob can be found on his www.rdsears.com